Water shortage in Dar will soon end, Minister

DAILY NEWS Reporters in Dodoma

THE government is determined to solve water shortage in the city of Dar es Salaam permanently following different projects that were currently being implemented, Deputy Minister for Water and Irrigation Isaack Kamwelwe, has said.

Mr Kamwelwe told the National Assembly here yesterday that the government would implement all promises made regarding the matter. The promise of increasing water production from Lower Ruvu plant has been implemented already.

According to the Deputy Minister, such improvement also included laying of transmission line with 1800mm dimension from the plant to the city, a distance of 56 kilometres. He disclosed that the plant had started producing 270 million litres as opposed to 180 million litres a day previously.

The deputy minister was responding to a question by Saed Kubenea (Ubungo-Chadema), who had explained that the government had made several promises to improve water supply in the city, but after six years the problem was still there.

Mr Kubenea therefore wanted to know when the government would keep the promise and why it gave wananchi promises it could not keep. The MP further sought to know the reason behind the failure to implement the plan to distribute water from Ruvu.

The plan was expected to relieve many areas in the city including Ubungo of the problem. In response, the deputy minister said the expansion project of Upper Ruvu plant was completed and producing 196 million litres from 82 million litres per day.

He said that laying of two pipes from Mlandizi to Kimara, construction of new tank at Kibamba and renovation of tanks at Kimara, had reached the 98 per cent stage, while operation tests started this month.

The deputy minister further pointed out that the government was also proceeding with implementation of Kimbiji and Mpera projects and the contractor had completed the drilling of nine wells among 20 planned.

Such work, he said, was expected to be over in August this year. Upon completion the wells would produce 260 million litres daily. The contract for construction of pipes for water distribution in the city was signed on December 11, 2015. Mr Kamwelwe said that the contractor was on the site surveying, identifying water pipe lines and areas where tanks would be constructed.

By his account, the construction was expected to take off this May and would be completed in June 2017. He further disclosed that production of water in Dar es Salaam city currently stood at 390 million litres per day as compared to the actual need of 450 million litres.

He said that upon completion of all the projects production would reach 750 million litres. In a supplementary question by the MP over urgent measures to solve the problem, Mr Kamwelwe pointed out that the project worth 32.9 million US dollars was being implemented.

The project, he said, was expected to be completed in April 2017 and involved replacement of old water pipes and laying of new pipes in areas yet to be covered. Other areas include Bagamoyo town, Mpiji, Bunju and Mabwepande.

Others are Boko, Bweni, Tegeta, Ununio, Wazo, Salasala, Kizundi, Matosa, Mbezi Juu, Goba, Changanyikeni, Makongo, Kiluvya, Kibamba, Mbezi,Msakuzi, Makabe, Maramba Mawili and Msigali.

The Deputy Minister also said that there was another initiative involving a project of digging 51 wells in areas of Kilungule A and B, Makurunza A, King’ongo I and 3, Sandari, Mpogo, Mwembe Radu, Mburahati and Kipunguni. Other areas included FFU Ukonga, Uwanja wa Ndege, Segerea, Chanika and Yombo, Saranga, Chang’ombe A, Ununio, Keko and Chang’ombe Toroli.